Big Girl Panties!

Let's start at the beginning. My first "day" was a little ruff to say the least, but I kept my big girl panties on and dealt with it very well I must say! (I was CY all the way!!) Considering Day 1 was actually 3 days.... I arrived at the airport only to find my first flight canceled. I had been re-booked for two hours earlier without being informed and had therefore missed my flight to Chicago. So no Seoul, Korea for me. I was re-routed to Washington DC, where again, I was re-routed for the third time since my flight to Beijing was delayed by 6 hours, causing me to eventually miss my connection to the Philippines. So, no Beijing for me. Onto Chicago, Vancouver and then Manila, Philippines overnight. On the runway in DC we sat watching movies for 2 hours while thunder and lightening struck down around us. In Chicago we didn't have a flight crew, so we were delayed 1 1/2 hours... are you seeing a theme here yet. I started to feel like the travel Gods were playing a nasty trick on me and really, all I wanted was to land in Manila and see the men in uniform that were there to pick me up!! (which they were NOT...unitl 2 hours and an emergent "where are you" phone call later.) The flight from Vancouver to Manila was actually not that bad. 13 hours long, but I got lucky to have an aisle exit row. I popped a couple of benadryl, a glass of wine, put on my dream sleeper mask and caught some Philippine Phlies!! When I landed I found out that although I didn't go via Beijing, my bag did! And it didn't continue on...So it became a Navy mission for my bag recovery efforts since if it didn't arrive by the next night (Monday) we were going out to sea Tuesday morning at 8am without it. With limited phone and internet use it was nearly impossile to verify that the flight was even going to come in from Beijing to Manila Monday night (it was also 5 hours delayed!) The navy secured a driver and van, provided an escort, I took a couple of my new friends and low and behold, the Travel Gods provided my beautiful, fully stocked duffle bag!!
I am living in Commander Officer's Quarters with 6 other women, all of which are very nice, flexible and fun (which was not the case initially!) We were in enlisted quarters at first, which is hundreds of women on triple bunks in one giant galley. I have a locker, 4 drawers and we share common showers and toilets. Everyone gets up at 4am to 6:30am. I have been up at about 5:30 for the most part, going to breakfast and staring my days out with a walk on the deck. So far I think I have eaten 8 naval meals, one of which was filet and lobster tail, NO JOKE!! The food is really good - but I don't think I will be gaining a lot of weight... from the CO quarter (where I sleep) to the mess hall (where I eat) there are 5 flights of stairs. There are 7 flights total...6 different zones...A LOT OF STAIRMASTER HERE!! (JT- losing the 3 mo. prego from all the stairs and get to pig out on all the good food 3 times a day!!) Very easy to get lost and I have to keep my map with me all the time. We won't know our actuall "jobs" until we dock 1.5 mile from shore in Vietnam in the am...but for right now I am going to be working in the ICU and doing some education pieces... A LOT of political red tape to work through and "going to shore" is a lot more difficult than we anticipated...must go eat again! Will try to write again later...the internet is VERY slow at sea. Love to you all, Jess

Seriously? Seriously....

Wow! I think that about sums it up in one word. I am on board the USNS Mercy, and there aint no getting off! We are at sea right now with no land in sight. The sun is wicked hot in the day with the heat index was 113 today, just a little muggy... and the stars and moon are phenomenoal on the flight deck at night. We were refueled and resupplied this morning (which is an AMAZING sight) by the Tippicanoe Naval Ship 199 at full speed. It took about 5 hours throughout the morning and our black hawk helo flew back and forth picking up palates with crates full of food, supplies and equipment. I never thought in a million years that my volunteer mission would include any of these types of experiences!!
This morning I found out my my "assignment" for Vietnam. We are docking at 0900 Thursday 1.5 miles from shore. Since there are a lot political issues there may not be a lot of land based mission work over the 10 days. The plans are changing every day and so far I am slotted to provide education at two hospitals on the 20th and the 27th. I will be speaking at 2 large hospitals about several different topics with other ICU/ER nurses. Otherwise right now it looks like I am helping to staff the ICU which is also the tele/isolation/pedi ICU/family escort care center. One of the nurses in charge of the ICU was the naval nurse for the white house for President Clinton for 2 1/2 years - he is extremely intelligent, very personable and wonderful to work with! His stories are incredible and we are going to be teaching together at our shore missions.
We had cultural training on Vietnamese customs today - very interesting and things that you would naturally do as a nurse they were smart to tell us ahead of time to be careful of. Don't touch the face or the shoulders - that's the window to the soul....don't touch the men, give things to others with both hands...don't cross your arms...don't point your toes outwards.
By the way, the picture above is obviously me in our helo. No, I didn't go flying around, but I did get to sit in the cockpit and hold the joystick! The flight crew was pretty amazing and hopefully they will take me up for a ride in East Timor... no flights in Vietnam...for pretty obvious reasons. Chat with you soon...I will try to call in the am! Love you all!

It's the final countdown!!

Sheesh.  I just finished packing 44 days worth of clothing, travel supplies and basic medical stuff into a duffel and back pack that will fit into a 36x12x24" locker... and if you know me very well at all, you know that I have been doing this very carefully over the last two weeks; weeding out the unnecessary items, upgrading, sizing down, checking my list, repacking, pulling everything out and displaying it across the living room floor only to think - wow, there isn't a lot of stuff here at all, Do I need something new?!?!!  But I am finally ready!  I am anxious, nervous and super excited!  I think the only nervous part is about sleeping on a naval ship bunk bed and eating 3 square meals a day starting at 6am! What happened to snack time and happy hour?!?! I will keep you posted on if I find anyone who will trade me better sleeping arrangements for some quality nursing care and some cosmos for what's packed in my first aid kit!! Keep your fingers crossed!  Well, less than 12 hours to take off and I am finishing up all the "minor details."  Watch out Mercy Ship, 'cause here I come!! 

Chao ong!

That's Hello in Vietnamese!  You may wonder why do I care?  Well, because as of this morning I have been asked and confirmed to sail on the USNS Mercy as a part of Project Hope providing medical care to Vietnam and East Timor!!  I think that the stars must be aligned since I put my application in almost 3 years ago and they called just as I was deciding to turn down a travel contract that would have conflicted with the times.  I am working on all the paperwork today, reading through the packing list and finding that I may need some help with fitting 5 weeks worth of "accessories" into a "large duffle and small rucksack!?!?"  My departure date is set for June 17th until July 25th. I may have a 4 or 5 day break in the middle to go to Singapore...Do you think I can bring back an extra "rucksack" of treasures?  I haven't stopped doing a happy dance since they called last week - you have no idea how excited I am to be able to do something like this again (Africa was over 8 years ago now) and this time I feel like I can give back so much more!  My contact at Project Hope informed me that my job would be to get off the boat every day and go into villages to provide medical care and education, bringing patients back to the ship if needed.  I will include a link so you can check it out - there are ORs, hospital beds, ICUs...seems unreal!  And we are meeting up with other NGOs, Allies in Humanitarian Assistance and the Department of Defence...CAN'T WAIT!!!   I will be receiving a separate email address through Project Hope in order to communicate while I am gone and will post it here when I get it.  I will keep you updated on info I as get it...  

www.mercy.navy.mil/      

www.projecthope.org 

Long time no chat...

Here I go!  For those of you that I haven't kept in touch with, here is the quick and dirty of it: I am living in CT and working as a travel nurse in the ED (well, currently I am slightly retired - that just means that I haven't resigned a new contract yet...)  Before I moved back out to CT in January, I spent 5 months in Oregon (God's Country according to my family.)  I worked in a bunch of ERs there per diem and got to spend a lot of wonderful time with my family.  I was blessed to be a part of my brother Kyle's marriage to my new sister Jenny!  We partied in Maui and then again in Cornvalley - someday I hope to be as lucky as these two with a rainbow looking over the start of their new life together!  I just enjoyed the trip of a lifetime and spent 8 days in Mexico with my mom and auntie drink drink (Shari too! oh, and Mike & dad for a few days until the loads weren't full!); soaking up the sun, chasing dolphins, reading, forgetting and enjoying an adult beverage or four!  Drink enough and maybe you will get luck to find a Peterbuilt!!  But careful though or your ulcers may act up!  I can't describe how wonderful the LB is - you wouldn't have to leave the patio to enjoy your entire time there!  But back to reality I quickly came and finished up my travel contract at Yale. They offered me a permanent job, but I am not quite sure that I want to settle down there.  So instead, I am signing on per diem and going to work my buns off for the next couple of weeks to stash away some cash for my next big adventure!